With the new jumps season underway, Jamie Snowden, fresh off a season where his team added to their Cheltenham Festival tally, spoke exclusively to GG’s Joe Napier. He unveiled plans for Grade 1 heroes Johnny’s Jury and Julius Des Pictons, while revealing that an old favourite has been retired…
GG: Thanks for joining us, Jamie. You enjoyed your third Cheltenham Festival winner back in March with Johnny’s Jury. How much does having a winner at the Cheltenham Festival make you strive for even more every season, and do you think you have the team again to add to that tally and make it four, or even five?
Jamie Snowden: Yeah, like all these things, we all want winners, we all want big winners, and obviously the Cheltenham Festival is the pinnacle of our sport. So naturally, once you get a taste for that, you’re always eager to try and repeat the feat. It’s a sort of results-driven business, and we’re very eager to keep improving.
“Sometimes the novice chase season can be a slightly easier season than staying over hurdles.”
GG: We mentioned Johnny’s Jury there. How is he, first and foremost, and is it going to be novice chasing or sticking to hurdles?
Snowden: Yeah, he’s going to go novice chasing. Obviously, he’s a high-class horse. He won a couple of novice hurdles prior to Cheltenham and was arguably a little bit unlucky at Aintree. He got caught in a bit of a pocket before staying on late from the back of the last. So we’re going to go chasing with him. We just figured that he’s a young horse, and sometimes the novice chase season can be a slightly easier season than staying over hurdles. That staying division over hurdles is historically for the older, powerful, more mature horses that perhaps come back from not making it over fences. So I think it makes sense to go chasing. He enjoys his jumping at home, and I’m very much looking forward to getting going.
GG: Your yard has made a name for itself in recent seasons with staying novice hurdlers. It was Johnny’s Jury last season, and before that you had Julius Des Pictons, who missed last season. Again, most importantly, how is he, and is he also ready to go now? Is he going to be following a similar route in terms of novice chasing rather than staying over hurdles?
Snowden: Yeah, he’s going to go chasing as well. Obviously, it’s a shame to miss last season, but he’s come back in looking bigger and stronger than ever. So he’s another super exciting novice chaser to have.
GG: A lot of Racing Club shareholders were certainly hoping that Wendigo was going to be another of those Grade 1-winning novice hurdlers. It didn’t quite happen for him, and he came up just short at the top level last season. Where is he likely to end up? I know the Coral Gold Cup is being thought of along the way, but were things to work out this season, would the Gold Cup come under consideration, or is it likely to be more staying chase handicaps in the future for him?
Snowden: I think at this moment in time, you’re thinking staying chase handicaps off a mark of 147. He’s got to improve considerably to be considered a Gold Cup horse. But, you know, several years ago, Datsalrightgino had a very similar sort of profile coming into his second season over fences. He won the Coral Gold Cup, aka the Hennessy, and we ended up going into the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham with him and, poor chap, we unfortunately lost him that day. But had he progressed into perhaps winning the Cotswold Chase, then obviously he would have developed into a Gold Cup horse. So there’s every chance that Wendigo can develop into a Gold Cup horse, but he’s got to keep improving off his handicap mark of 147. The obvious route is to have a prep run and then go to the Coral Gold Cup. He’ll certainly have an entry in the Welsh National. It may even be that he’s a Grand National horse this season, and if we were lucky enough to win one of those big staying handicaps, he might be a Gold Cup horse for the following year, perhaps.
GG: You obviously believe he’s got a fair amount of class, given that he was entered in the Old Roan at the weekend over two-and-a-half miles and is entered again at Carlisle this weekend. Does that class factor into your thinking long term? As you say, he’s on a mark of 147 that’s there to be exploited in handicaps, but is it possible that you believe there’s a little bit more in the tank in terms of what he could achieve in the future?
Snowden: You definitely like to hope so. The idea of running in the Old Roan was to have a prep run before the Coral Gold Cup. History would say that winners of the Coral Gold Cup tend to need a prep run, and history would say that Wendigo needs a prep run; he got beaten on his bumper debut, he got beaten on his novice hurdle debut and he got beaten on his novice chase debut. So there’s every reason to think that he’ll need this first run. Hence, we want to run him over two-and-a-half miles and then, all being well, head to Newbury at the end of November.
GG: He’d be about as popular a Newbury winner as there could be, given his syndicate ownership. How has it been to train for the Racing Club as a syndicate? Because obviously he’s far from the only one: you’ve got A Path To Ronda, Legendary Luke and Handlethekettle. I’m assuming having that many people on your side is about as exciting as it can get for a jumps trainer.
Snowden: Oh, it’s wonderful. You know, our postman’s got a share of Wendigo, and every time he delivers the post in the morning, he asks how his horse is. He’s stabled opposite Fine Shot, the King’s horse. So, you know, it’s wonderful to have a vast array of owners, quite literally, from the postman to the King. We’re very lucky to have that.
GG: Another of your big-race winners in recent seasons has been Colonel Harry. How is he doing? Is he on the mend for some big prizes this season as well?
Snowden: I think we’ve decided to retire Colonel Harry, actually. He’s been a legend for us: Grade 1-placed over hurdles and fences and a Grade 2 winner, while he also won the Grand Sefton. He’s been a lovely horse, but we just struggled to keep him sound over the last year, 18 months. We just think that now’s the right time to give him a nice, honourable retirement.
GG: Another of your recent retirees was You Wear It Well, who I believe you said last season was in foal to Walk In The Park. Do we have a foal? How is she as well?
Snowden: Yeah, we’ve had a colt foal that was born two years to the day that poor Chips Keswick died. So, yeah, I think we’re going to call him Sir Chips.
GG: Fantastic, great name! I look forward to him running already. On mares in particular, You Wear It Well had her big day in the spotlight at the Cheltenham Festival a few years ago. You’ve also got the likes of Hollygrove Cha Cha and Lady Tadita, both of whom have hinted that they may well be capable of more than what they’ve achieved so far. What are their plans for the season?
Snowden: Yeah, I mean, Hollygrove Cha Cha has been an absolute legend. Grade 2 winner, Listed winner. She’s a star. She obviously won over fences last season, but we’re going to stay over hurdles this year. I think we’ll probably go to Kempton at the end of November, then on to Sandown, Warwick and then maybe Cheltenham. The programme maps it out for her, really. She’s in great order after having kissing spine surgery at the back end of last season as well, so hopefully that will help her out.
Lady T, she’s 100% GBB, which is quite useful. So she’s got an extra 10 grand for winning a bumper and an extra 40 grand for winning two over hurdles, and then she was Listed-placed as well last year. She’s going chasing. She was third on her chase debut but has got a handicap mark that suggests we’re better off going handicap chasing with her now.
GG: On a broader note, Dan Skelton‘s record-chasing is making headlines. Is that an inspiration for you, given that he is beginning to threaten the big Irish yards that have dominated in recent seasons? Or is it slightly unnerving that it could create a potential further imbalance of quality and quantity?
Snowden: I think it’s called sport. It doesn’t matter what sport you’re talking about, whether it’s hockey, football, cricket, rugby or racing, you’re always going to have a dominant force at any one time. I remember when I was working down at Paul Nicholls’ many years ago, he was obviously champion trainer over here, and there was a chat that he could be champion trainer in Ireland at the same time as well. Willie‘s obviously done that, and Dan’s doing very well now, too. Manchester United were champions for many years before Manchester City and Arsenal came along. It’s called sport, I think.
GG: Obviously, Dan is your rival for big races when they come along, but given that there have been Cheltenham Festivals in recent seasons where Ireland have won the Prestbury Cup 23-5, is it quite refreshing to know that you have someone who’s representing home shores and could potentially bring that balance back?
Snowden: We’re competitors against everybody, but ultimately we’re great friends, and, you know, friends with the Irish trainers as well as the English trainers. I think sometimes the press builds this (England vs Ireland) up into a bigger thing than perhaps it actually is. Of course, I’d be supporting England over Ireland, but I don’t think it’s such a big issue.
GG: I saw you gave one of your conditionals, Isabelle Ryder, quite a positive mention in a preview for the season. Obviously, you’ve got Gavin Sheehan as your main rider, but are there any other jockeys you’re looking to give particular opportunities to ahead of or during this campaign?
Snowden: Gav’s obviously been a big part of our team for many years. He’ll continue to ride as our number one, and Izzy’s doing very well as a conditional. She rode 20 winners last season in her first full season, and I think she’s on 12 or 13 winners at the moment already. So she’s doing very well. It’d be wonderful to think that she might challenge for champion conditional. Johnny Burke‘s gone freelance now, so he’s going to ride a few more for us as well through the season.
“One that could be quite a nice horse is County Prospect.”
GG: Finally, can you give us one existing name for this jumps season who you think has improved or done well over the summer, and one newcomer who we won’t be quite as familiar with that could be one to follow for this season?
Snowden: Good question. Obviously, we did very well in the novice hurdle department last year, so a lot of them are going to go novice chasing, and hopefully they’re going to be very exciting. We ran a very nice horse yesterday up at Newcastle (Wilde’s Legacy) that won. I think he could be very smart, but I suppose one that we haven’t heard of so much yet is Red Acres Max. He was a bumper winner last year, and he’s going to go novice hurdling this year. I think he can be quite smart.
For the newcomers, we have some nice young horses coming through. Ballycrystal Boy won a bumper at Cheltenham on Saturday. Cameron De Fiacre won a bumper on debut. I think he’s going to go to Cheltenham on Paddy Power day, and then one that could be quite nice is a horse called County Prospect, who won a point-to-point at Punchestown. He looks quite smart.
GG: Is it natural that you’re thinking down the route of Johnny’s Jury and Julius Des Pictons for Red Acres Max?
Snowden: I’d say stamina is probably more of his strength than speed, so I would have thought that he could. He can hopefully follow in Wendigo and Johnny’s Jury’s footsteps, but there’s plenty of water that’s got to pass under the bridge before that stage.
Jamie Snowden is an ambassador for Fitzdares